


Love Cubed

by WildcatPacer



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 22:22:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12045498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildcatPacer/pseuds/WildcatPacer
Summary: Rory Everdeen is the daughter of Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne. But she has a father figure in local baker - and Hunger Games Victor - Peeta Mellark.





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Something to Come Home To**

I wait in the locked, ornate room of the Justice Building. I have just said goodbye to my family after being Reaped as the male tribute of District 12 for the 74th Annual Hunger Games.

I'm as good as dead. Only two people from Twelve have made it back from the yearly fight-to-the-death alive. One of them has been dead since around the time I was born. And the other, Haymitch Abernathy, is a useless drunk.

I don't expect any more visitors, until the door opens to reveal the last person whom I thought would visit me. I rise from my seat, surprised and elated all at once.

Katniss Everdeen, though we are only classmates who have never spoken, still looks beautiful with her brown hair in one braid, and in her blue Reaping dress she wears every year. Only this time, the dress hangs loose about her, as she is still losing her baby fat from the infant she now holds in her arms.

The baby girl isn't mine. But, oh, how I wish it was! Katniss Everdeen fell pregnant with her boyfriend, Gale Hawthorne's, baby. She was still only fifteen at the time. Just, in fact. The baby was preemie - born just before Christmas. I hear the child's name is Rory, named after her father's younger brother.

The Hawthornes. They were all killed in an earthquake. Which followed the mine collapse that killed many miners, including Katniss and Gale's fathers. Many people think the collapse was an inside job to get rid of known or suspected rebels. Gale survived, however, but he - a well-known troublemaker - was sent away to the Peacekeeper Academy in District 2 to be disciplined. For the miner rebels who did live, the Peacekeepers of 12 also killed Mrs. Everdeen and Katniss's little sister, Primrose, so no Healers could save rebels who had survived.

Katniss had thus given birth to her daughter alone, were it not for the kindness of folk in the Seam like Greasy Sae.

And now, this young woman who I am still in love with, is standing here with her child sired by another man, wanting to say goodbye to me.  _Me_!

Katniss now gives something between an uncomfortable grimace and a scowl as she looks down at her feet. "I couldn't stand not thanking you. For the bread. It saved my family's lives. I just... thank you."

She flushes. I wonder if she thinks she is not so good with words. That's OK. I don't mind. But I am surprised by her thanks. The bread. The bread I tossed to her when we were starving as small children. She'd had a mother, a father and a sister to care for then.

Now, she has nobody except for baby Rory.

I dare to approach her, running a hand down her arm. She stiffens for a moment, but then allows it. I stare down at the little baby with cerulean blue eyes nestled between us. Merchant eyes - something she didn't inherit from either Katniss or Gale, but likely from her maternal aunt and grandmother. Mrs. Everdeen was originally born a Merchant.

"Will you be all right on your own?" I ask her.

"We'll be fine," she tells me.

I am not convinced. A single Seam mother with no family to care for her, and the father shipped away?

Suddenly, I have a new reason to come home. If not for Katniss and the potential to one day earn her love, then for this helpless little baby. I have to win the Hunger Games. I will win. For them. Someone - two someones - to come home to.

I dare to kiss Rory's little forehead. Katniss starts for a moment, but then her gaze softens at the tender gesture. "I'll be back," I tell the little baby. "I promise."

Katniss and I look at each other, and I wonder if I should kiss her forehead too. But as I lean in to do so, Katniss suddenly stands on her tiptoes and gently presses her lips to mine.

The gesture is traditional in 12. It signifies wishing someone good luck, just as the three-fingered salute is one way of saying goodbye. So even though I dare to kiss her back, and even want to deepen the kiss, I know I should not. Katniss Everdeen is not kissing me based on love. This is not for love. This is -

"For luck," she rasps out at the same moment I do, when we break apart. I desperately want to confess my love for her here and now, but the Peacekeeper has come to take them away.

I only hope I have the chance to tell her someday.

* * *

The Third Quarter Quell. What a time to be a first-year mentor.

I won and became the Victor of the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss's kiss and Rory's blue eyes stayed with me like a prayer. I survived the Bloodbath for them. Made the Final Eight for them - all four Careers, the girl from 5, both from 11 and me. I deserted the Career pack before it was destroyed save one... for them. And I battled and beat Cato, the boy from 2, to get the Crown... for them.

I lost my parents and brothers in the process though. President Snow was concerned over how much hope a Victor from District 12 could bring. So he killed my family.

But Rory and Katniss have been my salvation. The reason I have not turned to the bottle like Haymitch.

Now, these two lovely women - one 17, the other only 18-months old - visit me in my mentors' quarters in the Justice Building. Haymitch has a separate room of his own, so I can be alone with the only loved ones I have left.

Like last year, I am surprised to see them. And distressed to find Rory just on the edge of crying.

"What's the matter?" I ask Katniss.

"She started wailing as soon as I tried to take her home," Katniss explained. "She kept reaching back and trying to make sounds, so I brought her inside and figured..."

Just then, Rory makes what she wants explicit: "DA-DA!"

Katniss and I both freeze, looking at each other.

"Her first word!" Katniss doesn't seem to know whether to squeal or blanch. And not only that: her first word mistakenly identified me as her Daddy.

But I make no attempt to deny it, as I know it would only fly over the head of this still-young baby. Instead, I merely take Rory in my arms and bounce her up and down to calm her. I lead Rory and Katniss out to the train, where my tributes have apparently already been loaded in and Haymitch is waiting for me.

I kiss Rory's forehead. "Peeta will be back, princess," I tell her. "I promise."

Katniss then gives me a hug. "Ride safe," she tells me.

And I get on the train for the first time as a mentor.

* * *

"Peeta! Peeta!" Rory darts into my Mentors' Chambers. At 5-years-old, she looks a lot like her mother... and has since learned to call me by my real name and not Daddy.

"Hey, princess!" I smile, hugging her. Looking over her shoulder, I see Katniss leaning against the doorframe with the closest thing to a smile on her face that I have ever seen. "I have to go to the Capitol for a few weeks for the Games. But if you are good for your Mom and listen to everything she says, Grandpabbie and I will bring you back a treat." By 'Grandpabbie', I mean Haymitch - I came up with the name myself, much to the old drunk's displeasure. But he tolerates it and by extension Rory because he knows how much the little girl means to me.

Rory and Katniss see me off on the train as always. Katniss and I still share a friendly hug. "See you soon," I tell her.

Katniss scoops up Rory into her arms and smirks. "Don't be late," she chides me, as if she is my wife telling her husband to be back in time from work.


	2. Sixteen Years Later

**Chapter 2: Sixteen Years Later**

I skip into Mellark's Bakery along with my best friend, Jane, on the way to school. My name is Rory Everdeen and I am sixteen years old.

Today is our last day of school before the Christmas holidays. My mother and I are going to have an amazing time. We are poor, as we live in the Seam, but we have each other, so that makes us happy enough.

I have been going to Mellark's Bakery since I was a baby. Mama says that Peeta, her best friend, has been feeding me since I was in my high chair. And today, on my sixteenth birthday, he does not fail to disappoint. I take a seat at the counter with Jane, as I always do, but Peeta, who is working there, directs me to another table. I glance back to see cheese buns on a plate, as well as balloons over one table.

"You blew up balloons for me?" I ask Peeta.

"Yup," he smirks.

"Aww, Peeta, you old softie!" And I happily eat my cheese buns with Jane. Then it's time to go off to school.

"Rory!" Peeta calls out. I turn back. "Your mom said that you should come here after school. She'll meet you here."

"OK. Thanks, Peeta! Bye!" And I skip out the door.

* * *

Mrs. Culpepper, our teacher, passes out a project for Hunger Games History class after the bell rings. A project? For Christmas break? Really?

"I trust you all will have splendid holidays. But I want you to keep your minds sharp. So, I want you guys to work together in groups and write a five-page essay on the Victor I will assign to you. The whole 10th grade is doing it. Our homeroom will be studying Games ending in the number 4: 4th, 14th, 24th, 34th, 44th, 54th, 64th, 74th, and 84th."

Mrs. Culpepper then splits us into quartets. "Rory Everdeen, Penny Geller, Marcy Brown and Lucy Vonder: you will be studying Cashmere Ritchson of District 1: Victor of the 64th Hunger Games."

A group of boys is assigned the 74th Games. One of them, Tristan, approaches me as the bell rings. "Hey, Rory, do you think you could get your Dad to give us an interview?"

Of course. They have been assigned Peeta Mellark, the Victor of the 74th Hunger Games and only the third Victor from District 12. Also our most recent. But, wait... did Tristan just say...?

I shake my head. "Peeta's not my dad."

I have had to deal with that rumor over the years. That I am the secret love child between the Victor Peeta Mellark and Seam huntress Katniss Everdeen. But I am not. Mother has said that my biological Daddy is a Peacekeeper Captain in far-away District 2. His name is Gale. Gale Hawthorne. Mama had me when she was 15.

When the school days ends, I head straight for the bakery, and my group mates follow me. I have an idea for how we can do the best project on Cashmere Ritchson. As soon as my classmates and I enter the Bakery, I seat them all at the counter and call to Peeta.

"Peeta? I'm here!"

Peeta pokes his head out from the backroom, then grins as he talks into a phone. "She just walked in, Katniss. No problem." He hangs up. "What can I get you girls? Ready for a break from school?"

"Yeah," I say. "But we have a project to complete during it. It's for Hunger Games history. Our homeroom has been given Games ending in the number 4. We have to do a report on Cashmere Ritchson."

Peeta smiles. "Of course. I know Cashmere." He gets a thought, and then huddles us girls closer. "I have some Capitol business to attend to in the next few days. I can... set you gals up with an interview with her. If you want. Just be sure to have a video camera."

Penny, a viciously star student, looks positively delighted. "Oh, thank you, Mr. Mellark!"

"It's Peeta," Peeta smiles. "And don't mention it. Cashmere will do it in a second!"

"Oh!" I remember. "And there are some guys we know who are... doing your Games. Do you think you could interview for them if it was all right with you?"

"Tell them I will be more than happy to," Peeta nods.

Mother suddenly appears in the doorway, her game bag over her shoulder. "Time to go, Rory."

"Merry Christmas, girls! Bye, Peeta!" I wave as Mama and I head out of the bakery.

* * *

**Peeta's POV**

I board a train for the Capitol a few days later. As always, Rory and Katniss faithfully see me off at the train station. I kiss Rory goodbye and hug Katniss, promising them to be back within a few days.

This party is pretty standard. Something about celebrating the President. Most Victors, as national celebrities and heroes with status, have to go. Haymitch was able to get out of it, on account that he is drunk. So that leaves me to represent District 12.

I spy Cashmere Ritchson right away, with her voluptuous blonde hair, talking with Finnick Odair of District 4.

"Peeta, darling!" Cashmere pecks me on the cheek in greeting. "How have you been?"

I smile wearily. "Just fine, Cashmere. Hey, I have a favor I need to ask of you:" And I whisper in her ear about Rory's project.

Cashmere brightens. "I'd be happy to help! Is this your daughter? How cute!"

"Oh, no," I chuckle. "She's not mine... biologically... but she's the closest thing I have to a child!"

Cashmere grins sympathetically. She knows how I wanted children before the arena. I just never have told anyone whom I wanted to have those children with... She turns to her twin brother, Gloss, as he passes. "I won't be riding back with you. I have to go to 12 to help out Peeta with something."

Gloss just nods in our direction.

* * *

**Rory's POV**

The day before Christmas, I get the call from Peeta. Rounding up Penny and Marcy and Lucy, we rush down to Mellark's Bakery to see what the surprise is. When we get to the back storage room, I freeze, my mouth falling open in utter, star-struck shock.

Cashmere Ritchson is standing here in the bakery. Peeta is seated on his desk, and smirks at us girls' frozen reactions. "It's polite to say Hello, you know," he teases.

Penny frantically sets up the video camera, and I call my mom and tell her to come down. I am sure she would love to meet another Victor who isn't Peeta or Grandpabbie Haymitch. Cashmere dutifully sits for us as I press RECORD and the interview begins. "What would you like to know?"

About midway through the interview, Katniss arrives to see Cashmere being interviewed by us. She turns to Peeta. "Who is this?" she asks, and I wonder if I don't detect a hint of sharpness to her voice.

Cashmere blinks. "Oh, I'm sorry, Peeta. Is this your wife? I thought he told you I was coming?"

Peeta and Katniss both give nervous laughs and quickly assure Cashmere that they are, in fact, not married. That doesn't mean I have not secretly wished that they were. Peeta is the closest thing I have to a father.

The interview ends without further incident, and Penny is gushing about how we can use the footage in our presentation. We take pictures with Cashmere and thank her for her time before Mother leads me back to our house in the Seam.


	3. New Year's Eve Proposition

**Chapter 3: New Year's Eve Proposition**

**Katniss's POV**

I slide into the New Year's Eve party in the Hob with my friend, Bristel. She had convinced me that I needed to take time for myself during the holidays and go out more. Besides, Rory is already asleep and will likely not wake up until long after I am back in the morning.

As we enter, we run into Darius Pontipee, a friendly Peacekeeper with flaming red hair.

"Rory asleep?" he laughs.

I smile. Darius has always been a bit of a jokester, even a flirt, in District 12. Which is something you really can't say about any other Peacekeeper. "Yup. Perfect chance for me to not Mommy."

"Would you like to dance?"

I'm a little taken aback, but touched too, and accept. Darius and I join the other dancing pairs in the crowd. We waltz, before the music gets progressively faster and soon we are doing every dance from the polka to the samba. We finish with a traditional District 12 folk dance.

By the time we run off the dance floor, we are sweaty and laughing. We rest up at the bar, where Darius produces two glasses of beer.

"On the house!"

Darius and I quickly polish off that first round. Then another. And another. By late into the evening, we are pretty inebriated.

After Darius buys me an unsolicited drink – my fourth overall, he ponders "Now what might be a fair trade for a free shot of whiskey?"

I shake my head with a smile. "I can't even imagine."

"How about a kiss?" He leans in close to me and grins. "Tis the season, after all; I bet there are still sprigs of mistletoe hanging about."

I let out a bark of laughter and playfully shove him away. "No, thanks."

"Why not? I tell you, Katniss, my kisses are the most sought-after in the District!"

This gets my attention and I smirk. "Oh yeah? With who?"

Darius points out women to me. "Why, the flower seller with the green muffler. Oh, and the milkman's wife! I have plenty of references in these parts."

Darius lays off after a while, and I leave the bar and slip just outside to be by myself. Gazing up into the night sky, I can see the stars twinkling.

"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Darius has joined me. I simply nod. Just then, I hear the crowd begin to roar the countdown:

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!" There is loud cheering, and soon couples fall into each other's arms and kiss, as is tradition.

It is a tradition to share a kiss with someone when the clock strikes midnight. I don't have anybody. And neither does Darius. We turn to each other at the same moment.

"Come here, you," I drunkenly slur. I grab at his jacket and try to pull him towards me, but stumble. Darius catches me around the waist, his arms tightening about me as he pulls me closer and into his arms.

Our faces our inches apart now. My breath catches. My eyes slower flutter until they droop half-closed. I can feel Darius's breath on my face just before he -

Darius kisses me. Full on the lips. My eyes close completely, and forgetting where I am or even whose lips I am engaging, I enthusiastically kiss him back. Darius tongue sweeps across my bottom lip, seeking entrance.

"Mmmmmmmm..." I moan loudly into his mouth, and I part my lips for him. Immediately his tongue fires in between the split and intertwines with my own, drawing it into his own mouth. Our tongues battle for dominance. The kiss becomes more sensual, deepens, until it is hard to tell whose mouth is whose. It is as if our lips are fused together.

I drape my arms around Darius's neck, my fingers burying into his fiery red locks, playing with the strands of his hair. His hands press further into the small of my back, the digits dancing along the base of my spine possessively.

Somewhere far, far away, fireworks whizz and explode with a piercing WHEESH into the nighttime sky above the Hob. At long last, we break apart. Darius looks in awe as well as ecstatic.

"Happy New Year," he expresses.

I nod. "Happy New Year," I echo quietly.

* * *

Darius and I stumble into my house in the Seam several hours later, kissing ferociously. The handsome Peacekeeper backs me up into the banister of my stairwell, leaning me against the railing and facing away from the front door and foyer. I lazily drape my arms about his neck and kiss him back. As it gets heated, we begin to tear at each other's clothes and laugh at each other's clothes. I completely forget that I have an impressionable 16-year-old daughter upstairs, asleep in her bed.

Or that other people might come into my house at any moment.

I had not even remembered that he comes over so often enough that he knows where Rory and I hide our spare key. In fact, I am so busy kissing Darius, that I do not even hear the key turn in the lock. But soon enough, Darius must notice something, for his lips pull away from mine and he stares at someone over my shoulder.

"How many kids did you say you had?"

"One," I pant, my breasts heaving as I am desperate for sex. "Why?" But when I turn, I want to die. I get the strangest feeling that I have been unfaithful somehow.

For there is Peeta Mellark in my living room, my order of bread in his hands and staring at us in shock.


	4. The Captain Returns

**Chapter 4: The Captain Returns**

Peeta clears his throat as I goggle at him, my puffy and kissed lips slightly parted.

"I... um... brought the cheese buns that you and Rory ordered," he says, trying to make this as non-awkward as possible. Too late. It already is.

"Oh, um..." I gulp. "Thank you. Here, let me help you put them in the kitchen." I extract myself from Darius and help Peeta carry the bags into my kitchen. Alone with the Baker/Victor, I do my best to apologize. "Peeta, I'm sorry... We met up at the party in the Hob..."

He shakes his head, his expression oddly blank. Is he hurt by what he walked in on? Then again, why would he be? It's not like we're... "There's nothing to explain. You need some time for yourself. Just remember that Rory's upstairs."

And he leaves. Having had my arousal permanently ruined, I bid Darius good night and politely turn him out of my house without us having sex.

* * *

The next day, I head over to the Bakery. Even though it is a Sunday and the place is closed, I rap on the door until a sleepy Peeta with bedhead comes down.

"What's up?"

"I'm really sorry about last night," I say in a rush. "And I want to make it up to you. Would you like to get dinner with me... sometime?" I ask.

Peeta blinks. "Yeah. Sure. How about tomorrow night? I'll meet you here at 8 PM?"

"Sure," I say. "See you then."

* * *

Rory and I are going through town the next day running errands. As we buy some cheese from the Goat Man, we hear a roar and look up to see a motorcycle running through the square with a Peacekeeper atop it.

"Damn hooligans!" the Goat Man mumbles under his breath.

But I am impressed by the motorcycle and its rider. It's a 2000 Indian, a make that is vintage and a classic. From before the Dark Days of Panem. It runs remarkably well, for a vehicle so old.

As Rory and I turn to go into the Hob, the rider stops on the curb just behind us. Dismounting, he struggles with his Peacekeeper helmet.

"Nice shirt! Take it off!" he calls to me.

I am just about to tell the creep off, when I get a good look at the man underneath the mask.

Rory gasps. "Dad!" She has only seen him once before, when she was a little girl - probably about 7 - but she still runs into his arms. Gale laughs and picks her up and spins her around.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I have to make a tour through the districts and shore up the forces, so I thought I would stop in and see the Everdeen girls while I was in 12!" Gale chortles. He tosses Rory a helmet. "Hop on."

"Hop off," I counter, concerned for my kid's safety.

"Hop on," Gale encourages.

"Hop off."

Gale turns to me with a goofy smile, almost the one that a teenager might wear. "Catnip."

I sigh. "Hop on," I acquiesce, and I watch as my daughter and her father ride off through the district.

* * *

Gale stays the night at our house in the Seam. He sleeps on the couch and Rory tells him excitedly about everything she has been doing in school. After our daughter goes to bed, Gale and I sit on the back screened-in porch for a glass of wine and to reminisce.

"And to further commemorate this spot, we are in the immediate vicinity upon which was Rory's initial conception," Gale remarks after we have already inebriated ourselves with several toasts.

"Heres' to Rory," I gulp down a shot.

"The bright spot in all the darkness."

"And how."

Pretty soon, Gale and I are kissing fiercely and tearing at each other's clothes. This time, no one interrupts us as we have frantic sex.

* * *

I don't remember my date with Peeta until the next morning, through the fog of a painful hangover. I rush to the bakery and apologize.

When I trudge back into my house, Gale is at the stove, making coffee.

"Want some?" he asks.

"No," I sigh. And my refusal of any kind of beverage makes the father of my child aware that something is wrong. Gale decides to get right to the point.

"So... last night..."

"... Was a mistake," I dismiss. "And to top it all off, I stood up a really good friend, and I was crushed to see how hurt he was this morning, and..."

"Catnip," Gale interrupts, his eyes deadly serious. "I wanna marry you."

I pause for just a moment before launching into my tirade. "And the hits just keep on coming! You are out of your mind! You are completely... INSANE! President Snow is freaked out by you right now!"

"So what? We're already a family!" Gale points out.

"Who? Who is?..."

"US! You, me and Rory!"

"Gale, you don't even know what a family  _is_!"

"People living together..."

"No! It is work and commitment and responsibility you don't have!"

"I'm a Peacekeeper Captain! I can be responsible now!"

"Honey, you can't even register your motorcycle with the authorities properly," I throw down the hammer, recalling an incident I heard through the grapevine yesterday, in which Cray and Thread almost impounded Gale's motorcycle.

Gale looks pissed. "I told Rory not to rat me out."

I blink. "She didn't. The Goat Man told Greasy Sae, who told Thom, who told me, and when I asked Rory about it, she very reluctantly confirmed it! Rat you out... what are you? 16?"

Gale tries to get me to agree to marry him, but I refuse. I can't do it. Sure, maybe the Peacekeeper Corps has forced him to grow up, but not fast enough from where I'm standing. He leaves for District 11 that afternoon.


	5. Past Life

**Chapter 5: Past Life**

**Rory's POV**

After the Christmas break, Penny and Marcy and Lucy and I give our presentation on Cashmere Ritchson's Victory in the 64th Hunger Games. Tristan and his friends are up next, bringing in Peeta Mellark himself to talk about the 74th Hunger Games.

Peeta gives a a Q&A session recalling his memories of the arena. Then, Tristan and his friends show a video montage of the 74th Games.

Throughout the video, I watch a young Peeta give his interview, in which he alludes to being in love with some special girl. But he never gives away her identity. I wonder who she was; I've never seen him with any woman. And he has never married. I watch as Peeta survives the initial Bloodbath. I watch as he reaches the Final Eight and then slips away before his former allies in the Career pack turn on one another. And I watch him fight and beat Cato, the last living Career, to become Victor.

Through all the clips, Peeta becomes progressively more agitated. To the point that he is shaking and refusing to watch the screen, keeping his head between his knees.

"STOP IT!" I yell out to Tristan, distressed for my father figure's discomfort. "CAN'T YOU SEE IT'S BOTHERING HIM? STOP IT!"

I run up to Peeta after a disturbed Tristan switches off the tape. I embrace Peeta.

I know what the Hunger Games are. What they mean. I didn't when I was younger. But I just never connected how the kindly Baker who has fed me from the time I could crawl could be the same person who survived and killed in an entire arena.

"How old was I?" I gulp. "When you left?"

"Six months," Peeta sighs heavily.


	6. She's My Daughter Too

**Chapter 6: She's My Daughter Too**

**Peeta's POV**

The call from the President, originating in the Telephone Room of my mansion in Victor's Village, is something I do not expect.

"There is a client who would like to visit with you, Mr. Mellark," Snow drolls.

I know what he means by 'visits.' Prostitution. Ever since I became a Victor, I have been sold in the Capitol as a sex slave. Finnick and Cashmere and I are some of the highest Victors in demand.

"And if you don't," the President continues, "I understand there is a girl whom we would be anxious to see in the Hunger Games... one Ms. Rory Everdeen, yes?"

My jaw clenches. Rory will be 16 and a half for the Reaping of the 90th Hunger Games. But if I see this one client... "I'll do it. But you have to promise she won't be picked."

"Done."

I tell Katniss and Rory that I have to travel to the Capitol early, to take care of plans for the fortieth anniversary of Haymitch's victory. Neither one of the girls questions this, as I just celebrated my own fifteenth anniversary. They see me off on the train, as loyal as ever.

* * *

**Katniss's POV**

I drop off some meat to the Bakery late one night. Peeta just returned from his brief visit to the Capitol.

"So... what was that little jaunt up there about again?"

"I had to see a client," he dismisses.

I frown. I thought he said he had to plan Haymitch's fortieth anniversary, since the old drunk can't do it himself. "What kind of client?" But, recalling how Cray - our Head Peacekeeper - sometimes preys on poor, young girls, I work it out for myself. "You had to answer a proposition. For sex."

Peeta refuses to look at me as he nods.

"Why did you do it, Peeta?"

His answer sends me reeling to the floor. "Snow threatened to Reap Rory."

I gape at him in disbelief. "You mean to tell me that you fucked a Capitolite sleaze bag?"

"Yes."

"To save my daughter's life?"

"SHE'S MY DAUGHTER, TOO!" Peeta roars this out without thinking. Even though it's not true biologically, Peeta and I have spent years raising Rory together almost, ever since she could crawl. That Peeta would sacrifice his own safety to preserve that of my child's makes me let out a choked sob.

This is it. This is the final straw of years of foreplay, or sexual tension, of clear attraction, and of having a common purpose in Rory, even though Peeta and I have never been a couple. I feel my heart will burst if I don't do something about it.

So I do. I lurch, forward, launching myself into Peeta's arms. Throwing my limbs around him, I kiss his lips with all the strength I can muster, quickly forcing my tongue in between his lips and massaging the space there. I hear, feel Peeta moan in triumph as his hands encircle my waist and he kisses me back. My tears fall on his upturned face as I cradle his cheeks in my hands. I kiss his lips, his neck, his cheeks, his closed eyelids, everywhere.

"I love you!" I croak out against his mouth, my voice strangely hoarse.

After several minutes, we break apart. I slip out of the Bakery, hurrying away so that Peeta doesn't see me smiling.


	7. 100th Hunger Games

**Chapter 7: 100th Hunger Games**

"On the one-hundredth anniversary, as a reminder that even the strongest cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the tributes will be Reaped from their existing pool of Victors."

This is the 4th Quarter Quell twist that will send Peeta Mellark and Haymitch Abernathy back into the arena. There is no female Victor from 12 to represent our District, as Cassiope Fletch, the Victor of the 16th Hunger Games and the only female Victor from 12, has been dead since Peeta and I were babies.

Rory was spared from the 90th Reaping... then the 91st... then the 92nd... She aged out of eligibility after that, eventually marrying and becoming the mother of her own small child.

Peeta and I began a relationship after his intercession to spare my daughter's life. Rory was very pleased, having wanted to play matchmaker with her father figure and her mother for years. Though we eventually moved into Peeta's mansion in Victor's Village, he and I did not ?Toast the bread to get married.

I regret that now as Rory and I visit Peeta in his holding cell in the Justice Building, where he is once again a tribute after 26 years. He has been a mentor almost as long as Rory has been alive.

Peeta says goodbye to Rory first, whom he has loved as a daughter. "You have made my life worth living, sweetie. I'm a man who only learned to love when you were in his keeping."

Rory blinks back tears. "I know, Papa," - her recent nickname for the man that she has considered like a father. She makes her baby boy wave his chubby fist farewell. "Say goodbye, Vick," she tells her son. Then she and her family leave Peeta and I alone.

"I love you," he tells me quietly. "I always have and I always will."

Is it just my imagination, or do I hear footsteps approaching? The five minutes can't be up yet... I shake my head to clear it, staring Peeta dead in the eye, my expression a grim and almost straight-forward one.

"Go on. Kiss me," I order.

Peeta hesitates for a moment, and then takes me in his arms. My Seam-grey eyes grow heavy as they gaze into his impossibly blue ones, our lips drawing closer. When he sees I have no intention of drawing away, Peeta closes the gap between us and kisses me full on the mouth.

My fingers sink into his blonde curls and I pull him ever closer, kissing him back, my arms wounding lazily around his neck and then splaying across his back as the kiss deepens, becomes more passionate. Peeta's hands move through the braid that Rory did up this morning, the braid that Mother used to do for me, undoing it so that my brown hair tumbles down my shoulders in waves. Peeta's hands then curl around my slim waist.

Meanwhile, Peeta's tongue swishes out to tickle my bottom lip, demanding entrance. I acquiesce at the same time as he, as we both part each other's lips, and I slip my tongue into the split, playing with his.

Peeta's hands grope lower. I allow him to touch my ass through the fabric of my blue Reaping dress that still manages to fit me after all these years and one pregnancy, feeling me up. Seeing as no one has come yet, I begin to feel uncharacteristically bold as I raise my leg to his waist and hitch it around his hips. I press my body closer to his, so that I can feel his member straining through his pants and the folds of my dress. If he wants me, let him take me! I want to have sex with him, make sure he makes love to the one he loves!

So the Victor, reading my consent, throws me down on the cushioned seat and mounts me, the untamed, shrewish, unweddable outlaw. I feel him push my dress almost up over my head, drop my panties down past my thighs and to my ankles. I hear a clatter as the lower half of his clothes fall away. Then -

I feel a bloated conqueror invade my most sacred of spaces and claim it for itself. I gasp at the pain, as I feel the shattering of my hymen at last, deep within the core of my womanhood. Peeta pulls out, then thrusts again; with each one, pleasure begins to replace the sting of pain, and soon I am rolling up my hips to meet his as our increasingly sweaty bodies collide.

"Uhhh... Huhhhh... Hmmmmm... UHHHHHH! UHHHHHH!" I gasp and moan between desperate kisses of our lips.

At last, Peeta growls and spills himself inside me. He kisses me hard, muffling my wail as I follow.

We break apart, separate and redress ourselves. By the time the lock turns in the door and the Peacekeepers responsible for me have come, Peeta and I look as normal as we can be, hiding our disheveled appearance and mad coupling as if nothing had happened.

At the train platform, Peeta gives me a final squeeze of the hand, and then, so fast, I almost miss it, never mind have time to give him one in return:

A chaste kiss on the lips.

* * *

Rory and I stay in the square with baby Vick to watch the whole process. We watch the Tribute Chariot Parade. We watch the Training Scores - Peeta gets a 9; Haymitch an 8. We watch the interviews. Peeta goes last of all.

As the night before my lover goes into the arena concludes, I think back over how I have felt sick over the last few days, have been going to the bathroom. often to throw up. There is only one explanation.

"Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"... I'm pregnant." I am pregnant with, carrying, Peeta's baby. Our son.

* * *

Peeta wins the 100th Hunger Games or Fourth Quarter Quell. He and Haymitch go all the way to the end together and the master sacrifices himself to save his apprentice .

When Peeta comes home, he and I Toast the bread and marry in an intimate ceremony. Rory and her family are the only guests as we wed in Peeta's - _our_ \- living room. I tell my new Victor husband of my pregnancy. Nine months later, I give birth to a baby boy, Rory's half-brother.

All is well.


End file.
